Hillary Clinton Is Asking You To Take Up This Challenge For International Women’s Day

Just a few months after women made history during the 2018 midterm elections, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton celebrated International Women's Day with a challenge for her followers. In a pair of Friday tweets, Clinton urged more women to run for office, and highlighted a few resources that could help them do so.

"We know that when women run for office, they're elected at the same rate as men," Clinton tweeted. "But not as many women run as men — often because people don't ask women to run as often as they ask men."

"So think of a woman you know who should run for office," Clinton added. "Then take a moment today to ask her to do it. Tell her she'll have help from @emergeamerica, @emilyslist, @runforsomething, and you. With one question, you could start something pretty big."

The former secretary of state's challenge yielded a variety of responses from her followers, with some of them encouraging her to run for a president a third time. But this isn't the first time Clinton has urged other women to run for elected office. Following her loss in the 2016 presidential election, Clinton announced that 15,000 women had reached out to the political action committee EMILY's List to express an interest in running for office.

The challenge Clinton issued to her followers isn't the only way in which she commemorated International Women's Day. In a series of tweets, Clinton also defended the "universal and indivisible" nature of reproductive rights, and challenged the biased ways in which workplaces treat women.

"Women aren't 'bossy,'" Clinton tweeted. "We're the boss. Words matter, and being aware of gender bias in the way we relate to each other can make workplaces — and the world — better for everyone."

Clinton wasn't alone in her International Women's Day tweets, either. Numerous women — in fields ranging from politics to sports to music — took to Twitter to talk about the women that inspire them, and to share their achievements.

For years, Clinton has addressed gender equality and the glass ceiling in a very public way. On International Women's Day in 2017 — not long after the 2016 presidential election — Clinton argued that the fight for gender equality is worth having, even if it is filled with hurdles.

“Sometimes the road to progress can feel like it’s two steps forward, one step back, particular when it comes to advancing the rights, opportunities and full participation of women and girls," Clinton said as she accepted a Girls Inc. award in 2017, per Fortune. "It can seem discouraging, whether you’ve been on that road for a long time or are just starting out. But think how different the world would be if the people who came before us had not just gotten discouraged, but because of that, had given up.”

Fast forward to 2019, where a record number of women are running for president. During the 2018 midterm elections, women won a record number of seats, bringing the total number of women in Congress to 127, per The Hill.

Disclosure: Hillary Clinton's son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky joined Social Capital, an investor in Bustle Digital Group, in mid 2017 and joined the Board of Bustle Digital Group in early 2018.